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What are you worth to an employer? Quick, come up with a number. OK. Now, let’s come up with a realistic number. Negotiating salary is, for most of us, as difficult as getting past phone screens and interviews to the job offer. It can be tough to think of yourself in dollar terms. If you’re not prepared to negotiate, you’re sure to be unhappy with almost any offer.
Upright truly is right, it turns out. A study to be published in the forthcoming Psychological Science is demonstrating that those who lean to the left are more likely to underestimate numerical figures. And because the research only held up when respondents were assessing an unknown number, it was accepted to be applicable for gauging expected and desired salaries, according to a report by the Association for Psychological Science.
As we enter the last few months of 2011, a cloud continues to hang over the job market. In the latest Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey, there is a growing uncertainty among job seekers about their chances of landing a job and a decreasing number of employees feeling optimistic about their company’s outlook. These findings are just the tip of the iceberg in the third quarter report.
Not sure where the economy is headed and how your career path will look in the next 6 to 12 months? You’re not alone.
It’s no secret that the job market has remained tight over the past several months, and so it shouldn’t be too surprising to hear that employees are more pessimistic about their ability to get rehired within this the next six months should they lose their job. In addition, employee concerns about layoffs and pessimism about pay raises have risen to the highest levels since the height of the recession.
Today, Glassdoor released the latest Employment Confidence Survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, and found layoff concerns were up five percentage points this quarter…
The question comes up during recess or at an after-school club: How much money does your mom and dad make? What does your dad do for a living? Are you as rich as we are?
Or sometimes it’s the inquiry about going to a sleep-away camp this summer, one status symbol for the 7- to 11-year-old set.
So your daughter comes home and asks you: “Mom, are we poor? How much money do you make?”
You’re caught unawares, and aren’t sure what to say. Before you give your 9-year-old your salary or even an estimate of what you earn, listen to Janet Bodnar, mother of three and editor of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.
Frank Gallagher, the ne’er-do-well father played by William H. Macy on Showtime’s ‘Shameless’ TV series, may go to great lengths to scam up unemployment compensation, but he’s got nothing on the outrageous cheaters Paul Colbert deals with every day.
Cobert has seen crippled people walk, the infirm ride horses and even blind men see again. As a detective and founder of Meridian Investigative Group, a corporation that specializes in investigating workers’ compensation fraud, he’s concerned that people find it amusing, rather than taking it seriously.
Your boss has told you her hands are tied this year; salary increases are out of the question. When you meet for your annual performance evaluation she informs you that you are doing outstanding work! She truly wishes she could give you a raise, but the company is trying to stay afloat in a tight economy. You like your job and are ever so slightly sympathetic, but what can you do to get what you deserve?
According to a research study conducted by CareerBuilder between August and September of 2010, where they surveyed over 2400 hiring managers, employers that are unable to provide raises said they are willing to offer perks to retain valuable employees.
While not getting an annual raise can be a big disappointment, it can also be an opportunity to ask for other benefits that may improve your quality of life. Typically health benefits and 401K programs are not negotiable, but the following list may give you some ideas of perks the company should be able to provide at no additional out of pocket expense.
The economy has been a rough ride for just about everyone and so it may not be too surprising to hear that many are planning to head for ‘greener’ pastures in less than two years.
We just released the results of our latest Employment Confidence Survey and found 73 percent of employees expect to leave their job for a new employer in the future, 38 percent expect to leave their job in less than three years, 28 percent expect to do so in less than two years and 14 percent expect to do so in less than one year.
This may be driven by rising optimism around the job market. Among full-time, part-time and/or self-employed adults, 40 percent say they believe it is “likely” they could find a new job matched to their experience and compensation levels within six months if they lost their current job – the highest level in six quarters.
That optimism doesn’t necessarily carry through employee confidence in what’s happening within companies. While employee confidence in the job market rose in the first quarter, confidence in future job security, pay raises and company outlook remained relatively flat. And while reports of layoffs are down, 40 percent of employees say their employers made changes to the number of staff, organizational structure, compensation and benefits, or other perks in the past six months. In fact, rates of pay cuts, hiring freezes and job restructurings rose in Q1 from recent quarters.
It’s no wonder employees and job seekers are having a hard time getting a handle on the state of the job market and whether our economy is showing any improvements. In November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that the unemployment rate creeped up from 9.6% to 9.8% which analysts expect will only drop down to 9.7% in December. In parallel, the Conference Board reported that consumer confidence which had improved in November, decreased slightly in December.
To shed more light on what is influencing and impacting today’s workforce, Glassdoor has just released the results of its latest Employment Confidence Survey that reveals what those on the front lines, the employees and job seekers, are really seeing and feeling. Below are highlights showing where they are feeling optimistic, unsure and where they’re seeing changes at their company or in their job search.
Starting on a high note…
Raises are back, and what a difference a year makes in how employers view their manpower needs. In fact, if your employer sees you as valuable and at risk of leaving, you could receive up to a 200 percent raise, reports Virginia Backaitis in the New York Post.
Three human resources consulting firms — Towers Watson, Mercer, and Aon — have confirmed what we already know: Employers recognize that top-performing employees have the option to change jobs if they’re not satisfied.
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